Spring 2019, Wild Readers 5 discussion

#9 On the reading list I saw someone had read Diary of the Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. My younger brother loved reading the series and had all the books. Now that he is older he gave them to my nine-year-old son. I decided to read one and find what is so cool about them, this was a great opportunity for something I have been wondering, so I read “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School”. I chose this one after reading the synopsis, Greg Heffley questions if life was really better in the old days like adults say, without technology and inventions. I found the story very entertaining and with great humor. I saw one of the movies based on one of the books like three years ago, and I remember how Greg is always getting in trouble and taking his whole family into more problems, yet he is a nice kid with a very close family. By reading the book I can say the author did a great job making the stories entertaining and funny for children to get hooked. I am happy I read it because now I want to read the rest, even though they are for younger kids I don’t see it as a problem. I can say that the illustrations are really catchy as well. The Heffley family is a usual family that the mom is loving and cares for everyone and dad is more on the strict side. His mom is trying to get 100 people to sign a petition to get people to stop using electronic gadgets for 48 hours. When it finally happens, it’s on a weekend, and the difference is very obvious, everyone is out doors. His dad gives him the idea to open a lemonade stand. From here on, Greg starts learning simple things, like how to make a lemonade, then helps volunteers clean the park, he ends up getting in trouble, but his dad is out of town and asks his mom to send him to a camp (he was trying to avoid) so he doesn’t have to confront his dad. The camp is a week-long, but he gets to learn many tricks, and even though he hates it, he admits being without electronics was pretty adventurous and made him appreciate the stuff he has now, like a shower, and specifically he remarks how he loves who ever invented wet wipes. My son is now hooked on these books. I recommend them they are very fun.